Ramakrishna In Bristol Temple : )

[Guest guest]

Further to mentioning of Sri Ramakrishna appearing

.......I mean his huge oil painting appearing : )

in the Brisol Temple; John sent me an interesting email

pointing out his own experience in Athens :-

 

John Manetta <jmanveda

Re: Visit to a Hindu Temple in Bristol

 

Namo namah

 

Dear Jay

 

Yes, he does seem to be getting around!

 

I don't know if you get TATTVALOKA, a small magazine sponsored by Sringeri

and published from Chennai. In the last number there is an extraordinary

reportbout a 14-yearold girl, Divya Rao, who has regular darshan of Sri

Durga, Sri Kalima, Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sankara and Sri Ramana

Maharshi and gives their answers to questions posed by devotees.

 

I also have a personal experience, which has an element yours has, but

under stranger circumstances. Many years ago there was a " spiritual "

group here calling themselves " The Servers " , who were headed

by an older man. I went and visited them once. There were several

young men and women members of the group in the building.

I was usherd into the presence in an upstairs room. On entering

on the right sat this chain-smoking grayhaired man. I am invited

to sit. I look around, and surpise! on the wall facing the man I saw

pictures of our holy Trio! I did not say anything. We talked for a

while then I left. <snip> I also learned that the man smoked

(and all his group members smoked too) in order not to get lost

in samadhi! Anyhow, the group broke up and the chief henchman

and several members opened up another place, called " Spiritual Sun " .

Here they offered spiritual guidance, helped drug addicts

and offered counseling " service " , all mostly to young

people. To finance this (they had a nice 3-floor villa in a suburb)

the members (mostly university graduates) set up a cramming school

in the business centre of Athens. They also had a publishing branch

to publish books. In fact they published, among others, a small booklet

with some very badly translated sayings of Sri Ramakrishna entitled

" The Madman of God " . I chanced to see this in a shop-window

and bought it and noted that they were preparing the full Gospel!

There was phone number, I called them and went to visit them. They

had in fact permission from Madras to do the translation. We agreed to

collaborate.

 

They had in fact already done the translation by farming out several

chapters to different people! I collected the manuscripts and got to work.

In fact I retranslated the whole thing with occasional reference to the

manuscripts. Each week a girl came to collect my output for

verification and editing and brought it back the next week.

This went on for 5 years. Finally, the " Spiritual Sun " broke up

too and the headman went to stay with Sai Baba for a while.

The publication people finally told me they had no money to

publish and that I could do what I liked. So I set about selling

a flat previously occupied by my deceased mother and selling

the contents of the flat. Surprisingly I got a good price and all

sorts of people came to buy things. Sometimes you want to sell

one pin and no one comes around. Anyhow, 7 years after starting,

the full Gospel appeared in modern Greek in 1992. Somehow,

we can see Sri Thakur's finger in all this.

In addition, he forced me to study the Gospel through and

through, reading it umpteen times!

 

Regards

John

 

John Manetta <jmanveda